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326 LUBOML
who had worked with me in the woods. I begged
him to let me go and he asked me for money. I
gave him everything I had in my pockets and told
him my wife and my children were with me.
When he told them to come nearer, they approached
and he demanded money from them
too. My wife was so frightened she gave him everything
she had. He let us go and we started to
cross the fields.
But a second policeman heard us walking
and began to shoot. My acquaintance, the policeman,
also began to shoot, but he shot into the
air, so we managed to escape. The others, hearing
the shots, thought that we had been killed and ran
from the area.
We reached the woods and I was familiar
with all paths in it because I had been working
there. When we reached a village 7 miles from
our shtetl, we drank our fill of water and continued
on our way. As we came to another small
forest and lay down to rest, a group of shepherds
appeared, but ran when they saw us. They posed
the greatest danger to us, as the Germans had
spread the lie that Jews were cutting the throats
of gentiles and that the shepherds should, therefore,
betray any Jews they met an d they would
be rewarded.
We immediately ran from there. Later we
came near the house of a peasant whom I knewhis
name was Boyar. When Boyar came out in
the morning and saw footprints on the ground,
he understood someone was there. He looked
until he found us in the woods, but promised
not to betray us. He also asked us not to tell anyone
he had seen us and later sent his daughter
to us with some sour milk and bread to still our
hunger. We stayed there two days.
During that time we were joined by our
brother-in-law, Hersh Laychter. He told us our
Libivne hiding place had been discovered and the
Germans had shot his wife and the children, while
he had been able to escape. He was despondent
and wanted to give himself up to the Germans. It
took me a long time to persuade him not to do
this.
We stayed there eight more days, until shepherds
learned of our whereabouts and we were
forced to flee again. On the way we met a gen-
tile known as a thief, who told us to stay near
him His name was Tichon Martilets. Though we
feared he would betray us, we decided to stay
with him
We built a little shed of bent twigs, where we
lived for four weeks. He would bring us potatoes.
After four weeks, he brought more Jews to us, who
did not stay long but went deeper into the woods
because they were afraid. One Sunday they built
a fire and the police surrounded them, shot one
of them, and took the others alive. Later I learned
the police had shot Miriam Getman and her
daughter.
After this misfortune, it became dangerous
to stay in the woods much longer, and so we left
for another spot, where we stayed six months.
At this new place, another Jew joined us. His
name was Avrom Lubochiner. Our gentile thief
had told him there were other Jews in the forest
and brought him to us. There were thus five of
us.
Our toughest problem was getting food. At
first I would beg food from peasants whom I
knew, and who, I felt, would not betray us. Later
we began to steal from peasants. We would go
into a village, sneak into a stable, and take whatever
we could. Some peasants owed me money,
and they paid their debts to me with corn. A
poor peasant woman who lived in the woods
allowed us to stay in her attic and even baked
bread for us from the corn I had received. We
stayed with her for four weeks. When Passover
was near she told us she knew we had to eat special
food then and gave us some honey and eggs;
and we left for the woods again.
One peasant whom I knew told me there were
partisans in the woods and promised to arrange
for us to see them. When he told the partisans
about us, they came for us with a cart and took
us to their camp.
We rode about 6 miles until we reached their
position. The partisan detachment was very large.
It had three companies and its main mission was
to sabotage trains. I, my wife, and my daughter
were attached to the third squad, while the other
two men joined another squad. They asked us
whether we knew the side lanes that led to the
railroad. We told them we were familiar with all